


A Palace of Love in a Young Prince’s Heart

by Crazy_Fantasy



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Merfolk AU, human!Furihata, mermaid au, siren au, siren!Akashi, siren!Momoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 10:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10614912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crazy_Fantasy/pseuds/Crazy_Fantasy
Summary: It’s told in an ancient, ancient fairy tale, that within a legendary palaceA gentleman who fell in loveCould never return (so it was told)Tonight’s story will revive that legendI'm certain you’ve fallen in loveThat's right; you’ve come just for meForget everything else, let us sway and dance(— A Palace of Love in a Young Princess' Heart (Lily White))Written for AkaFuri Day 2017





	

**Author's Note:**

> My (late) contribution to AkaFuri Day 2017!  
> It's just a short one but I wanted to contribute something at least!
> 
> (Un-beta'd, so please excuse small mistakes!)
> 
> Warning: There is NO explicit character death in this but it IS implied. You have been warned.

Furihata had always felt a connection to the ocean.

Even though their parents had always told them not to go too close to the water, he and his brother had never once listened to them. Each time they went out, they took a detour to the stoned shore leading to the glistening blue.

“Did you know there was a legend about Seirin’s ocean?” his brother had asked him once, when he was younger. Furihata had looked up at him and shaken his head, prompting him to tell him more about it.

“They say that, if you go really far out with a boat, you’ll encounter legendary residents of the sea,” his brother had narrated, “and that they’re so pretty that if they seduce you, you have no choice but to go with them. Countless ships have fallen prey to them already. The people here call them sirens. Those who managed to survive an attack by sirens have said them to be beautiful humans with a large fin instead of legs.”

“Is that why mother and father don’t want us to go near the ocean?” Furihata had asked.

His brother had nodded, and looked out to the gentle waves with glimmering eyes. “They sighted sirens near the shore lately. People who have bathed a few feet away from the shore have been caught by them and vanished.”

“So they’re evil?” Furihata had followed his brother’s gaze curiously.

His brother had shaken his head with a noise of denial. “I don’t think so. I think they want to befriend us. But they can’t leave the water so they have to get us down to their homes.” His brother had smiled, and it was the most earnest smile Furihata had seen from him in years. “I’d love to encounter one of them, too…”

 

* * *

 

 

Two years later, his brother vanished.

Everyone believed the sirens had killed him. Two fishermen said they’d seen him out on the rock constellation mere feet from the shore but protected from prying eyes by a cliff. They told the people they’d seen him getting pulled into the water by another figure, a figure which they said to be a beautiful siren.

They blamed the sirens for his death, and the village mourned. Barriers were built along the shore, not allowing anyone to go near the sea anymore. They burrowed a rose in his brother’s place, and they swore the sirens to avenge him.

But Furihata knew better. He believed in the same thing his brother had believed in and he knew he was still out there somewhere, alive and befriended with the sirens.

No one else would believe him. They wrote him off as mad and desperate after his brother’s death, and didn’t care to listen to him.

Instead, they built harpoons and reinforced ships, and swore to hunt down every siren that dared come near their shore.

It wasn’t the village Furihata had once known anymore.

 

* * *

 

 

He went to the shore often after that. He knew a place to sneak by the barriers that no one else knew of, and went there frequently, hoping to one day see his brother or those who had taken him with them.

For three years, he ventured to the sea without seeing even a sign of life in the blue depths. Until one day, he saw him.

He was seated alone on one of the rocks not too far from the shore, in a place that was normally safe from being spotted from the people of the village.

He was a picture of beauty, and grace, short red hair swaying with the soft breeze as he looked out onto the sea with elegant eyes.  And, just as his brother had said, in place of his legs was a large fin, its red scales reflecting the dim sunlight as his moved gently.

Furihata hadn’t even realized he was staring until the siren turned his head and crimson eyes locked with his own.

Furihata’s throat felt dry as he swallowed. “U-um…!” His voice sounded loud as he spoke up and he could see how the siren tensed, immediately on guard. He made a step forward but slipped on the wet rocks and fell, face first with a yelp of shock and pain.

When he looked up, the siren looked back at him with wide, confused and somewhat amused eyes.

He scrambled to stand, face bright red. His first time meeting a siren, and he immediately made a complete fool of himself. Something like that could only have happened to him.

“I-I’m Furihata K-Kouki!” he stuttered, calling the words out so the siren would hear him from where he sat upon grey rock and blue depths.

Suddenly, the siren slid from the rock into the water and vanished beyond blue darkness.

“Wait!” Furihata gasped and hurried into the water until he was in knee-deep, gaze searching for a sign of red in the deep waves.

But the siren was nowhere to be seen.

 

* * *

 

 

Furihata didn’t see the siren again for three weeks.

Still, he did not give up. He came to the spot where he’d first seen the beautiful creature, again and again, hoping for just a sign of red hair.

Fukuda caught him once. He reprimanded him, shouting something about danger and irresponsibility, but promised not to tell anyone, in the end. Under the condition that Furihata didn’t go near the sea again, that was.

Furihata intended to keep to his side of the deal. But he wanted to look one more time, at least. Maybe he would be lucky, and he could see the siren again, at least one more time.

Fate was not as cruel as everyone liked to say it was, it seemed.

He spotted red before he’d even made it through the barrier. He scraped his knee and banged his shoulder in his hurried attempt to get through the hole in the wood, and ran across the shore towards the water.

The sired heard him before he’d reached the first waves and turned his head to him, a strange mixture of surprise and amusement on his face.

He jumped into the water, and for a moment, Furihata thought he’d ran away again, but then, a head of red hair appeared before him in the water as the siren heaved his upper body out of the water and looked up at him.

“I did not think you would come again, Furihata Kouki,” he spoke, and his voice sounded like sweet honey was dripping through his throat instead of words.

Furihata felt himself being drawn in by the simple sound of it and he stumbled closer, falling to his knees before the siren.

He smiled and Furihata felt butterflies in his chest. “The last human that dared to come near this shore came with one of ours three years ago.”

Furihata swallowed thickly. He’d known it. He’d always known his brother hadn’t been killed. He’d been taken to a place normal humans could never enter. “Y-yeah…”

The siren chuckled. “Please don’t worry. Satsuki has taken good care of him.”

He reached out a hand with fingers so delicate Furihata feared they might break from a simple touch. “You look like you want to follow him.”

Furihata swallowed and nodded. “Wh-what is your name?”

“You are the first to ask,” the siren replied with a curious tone to his voice of velvet. “It’s Akashi. Akashi Seijuurou.”

“Akashi…” Furihata breathed, the name rolling from his tongue like a soft breeze. Fleeting, yet gentle and gripping. Just like the siren himself. 

 

* * *

 

 

They met for years after that. Furihata grew older, and his time grew less. Their meetings grew shorter, and he knew Akashi was displeased with that. He could see it in the other’s face. But the thing to break it all was what Furihata told Akashi five years after their first meeting.

“I’m going to get married.”

Akashi’s eyes glistened with confusion at first, then understanding, and then rage.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Furihata shook his head. It hurt him, too, of course. The siren had grown dear to him in the time they’d spent together, and he could tell the redhead had become fond of him, too.

“I can’t help it,” he said softly. “My family needs it. My brother isn’t there to continue our bloodline anymore so now… now I have to do that.”

Akashi grew silent for a short moment, red eyes focused on a pair of brown ones, and he understood once more.

“You won’t be able to see me anymore.”

“I know.”

“But?”

Furihata swallowed. He’d taken a long time to make that decision. It had taken him a long time to realize the weight and truth of the decision his brother had made. But in the end…

“I want to see where you live, even if only once.”

…he decided to follow his brother’s footsteps.

Akashi smiled, and it was filled with joy and longing at the same time. He extended his hand, much like he had on their first encounter, but this time didn’t pull it back again, instead waiting for Furihata’s fingers to weave with his own.

“Then I will make once last forever.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it!  
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!  
> Find me on tumblr! [the1crazyfantasy](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/the1crazyfantasy)


End file.
